It’s hard to believe it’s been three months already, and yet it’s July! The last quarter has been exciting, to say the least. Wifey and I had the opportunity to go on an 18-night transpacific cruise from Sydney to Hawaii with three days in French Polynesia visiting Tahiti, Moorea and Bora Bora. I’ll be blogging and uploading videos to my YouTube channel from that trip soon, and speaking of YouTube I also just hit 200 subscribers, so I’m stoked about that!

If you think you might like to subscribe as well, head here and click the subscribe button (you rock).

After we got back from our cruise, we also decided to try going vegan and where practical, gluten-free, for two months. It’s now been one, so I’ll tell you more about that soon as well. In the meantime though, I thought I would share with you three things that have been invaluable to me over the last quarter.

1. Evernote + Offline Notes

The more writing and planning I do for videos the more I find I am relying on Evernote. If I have an idea for a blog or a video I can just pull it up on my phone and start writing it down from anywhere. Then whether I am working on my laptop or iPad, I can pick up right where I left off. The only thing I need to keep it all in sync is to set the notebooks I use for this to be stored offline (locally on each device), then a connection to the internet from time to time. That way each device always has the latest version of the note regardless of whether I have an internet connection at the time or not. This rings true for anything I might need notes for.

Evernote offline notes formed the basis of our entire itinerary and all the information we needed for our transpacific trip. We planned everything out beforehand in Evernote, with all the details of where we were going and what we were doing, flight booking numbers and so on. Evernote kept all our devices in sync so Wifey and I could be planning and be updating the notes wherever we were at the time. Then before we left, we made sure each device we were taking had our trip notebook set to be available offline and completely synchronised. Doing so, we had everything we needed and did not need to access the internet or cart around folders full of paperwork. Instead, we just had papers with the vital information in the event of multiple-device failure. Beauty.

2. Rodd & Gunn Polo Shirts

You may have noticed, but in almost every photo of me on my blog and almost every video on my YouTube channel, I am wearing a Rodd & Gunn polo shirt. I used to just get whatever shirts were cost effective, but Wifey wanted to get me some nicer ones a couple of years ago, so we decided to spend a little bit more. I know, that’s not this quarter, but these polo shirts just keep on giving, and I wear them almost every day.

Ready to board the seaplane at One Arm Point wearing one of my trusty Rodd & Gunn polos!

The first ones we got, we picked up from the Rodd & Gunn outlet store at Harbour Town on the Gold Coast. Since then I’ve gotten them from Rodd & Gunn directly, from Myer and other outlets. I’ve always been impressed with how good they feel, and the longer I have them, the more I am impressed with how well they last and how long it takes before fading or discolouration starts to occur. I got a different brand (still meant to be a higher quality brand) for the first time in February this year, and even though they feel good, they do feel noticeably thinner and are not as soft on the inside. I also noticed issues with them starting to come unstitched within just a few months, something I’ve never encountered with Rodd & Gunn. That’s what really made my Road & Gunn shirts stand out for value over the long run.

If you want to support my blog, you can use my Amazon referral link here to shop Rodd & Gunn polos. Unfortunately, there isn’t a huge selection on Amazon, but if there is something you like, I certainly appreciate it.

3. Breville Kitchen Wizz Pro Food Processor – BFP800

Breville Kitchen Wizz Pro BFP800 (image from Breville website)

On June 1, my wife and I embarked on a 2-month test of eating completely vegan, and wherever possible, gluten-free as well. A food processor makes a huge difference to cooking anyway, and we invested in the Breville Kitchen Wizz Pro about two years ago. Over the last month though it has gotten used 4 or 5 times a week. It makes things so much easier, and we’ve been using it to make all sorts of vegan goodies from caramel nut bars to chocolate ice cream to nut butter to chips to curry and an awful lot more.

The Breville Kitchen Wizz Pro has two bowls, a large and small one. I don’t use the little bowl much because it doesn’t seal. This means that any liquids and even some solids end up spilling over into the larger bowl anyway. Then you have to clean both. Boo. It also comes with a whole heap of different blades and attachments. The main ones I use are the S blade and the slicer. I don’t really use the others often, but they do come in handy from time to time.

Compared to the model below it, The Kitchen Wizz 11, the Kitchen Wizz Pro has a motor that is twice as powerful and a 25-year warranty vs. a 10-year warranty. That power and warranty period are the reason we opted to go for this one, and we haven’t looked back. There has not been a single thing that it won’t process, and that means no wasted time trying to reduce quantities or do things in different orders to help. The easier it is to make vegan food, the easier it is to eat it and the easier it is to stick to it. So that’s why this food processor has been of so much value to me this quarter! I’ll admit it’s even made me a little lazy sometimes. Some recipes say to put a cut vegetable into the processor. I don’t bother cutting first anymore. Our Breville Kitchen Wizz Pro cuts it all up anyway!